The Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces will markup those provisions which fall under the subcommittee’s jurisdiction of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2022.

In August 2019, an Arctic research vessel, the MV William Kennedy, anchored off the shore of Southampton Island, at the north end of Canada’s Hudson Bay. A group of researchers set off in a Zodiac, across waters that 30 years ago would have been covered with ice, even at this time of the year. Now there was only open water, revealing a seabed that had never before been mapped. 

Meteorologists were stunned this week when three successive thunderstorms swept across the icy Arctic from Siberia to north of Alaska, unleashing lightning bolts in an unusual phenomenon that scientists say will become less rare with global warming. “Forecasters hadn’t seen anything like that before,” said Ed Plumb, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Fairbanks, speaking about the storms that started on Saturday.

Traveling by boat through Canada's Arctic waters is no easy feat. Beyond the ice and the cold, the region is one of the most complex geographies on Earth, containing some 36,000 islands of varying size. But the nature of the Arctic is shifting thanks to climate change, and according to new research, the nautical pathways through the region are likely to become easier to traverse as the world warms and its ice becomes less common.

The ice cover in the Barents and Kara Seas may become a seasonal phenomenon, which will be observed only in winter months. This phenomenon may become a typical condition during the current decade already, an expert of the Lomonosov Moscow State University’s Geographic Department Vladimir Ivanov told TASS.

The Coast Guard Cutter Healy (WAGB 20) departed Seattle on Saturday, July 10, for a months-long Arctic deployment and circumnavigation of North America. The crew aboard Healy, a 420’ medium icebreaker, will provide U.S. surface presence in the Arctic, conduct high latitude science and research missions, engage in exercises and professional exchanges with foreign navies and patrols, and conduct other operations as directed throughout the deployment.

Radford University’s students are getting ready to brave frigid temperatures and Arctic winds. It’s a part of a research trip to Northern Alaska, to study the earth’s climate. The students will study Arctic sea ice while living and working in a remote location. The university’s PHYS 325 Arctic Geophysics class will travel to Utqiagvik (formerly-known as Barrow), a city of about 4,000 and the northernmost city in the United States.

A jet-black head with eyes to match, a tuxedo of black and white plumage — at first glance, the thick-billed murre might be mistaken for a penguin. But this chicken-sized seabird is a creature of its own, inhabiting the seas, skies, and shores of the arctic. Like so many northern creatures, however, the murre is threatened by rising temperatures and shortened winters — and a new McGill study is helping uncover why.

The Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support will markup those provisions which fall under the subcommittee’s jurisdiction of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2022.

The US House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology will hold a hearing on spectrum needs for observations in earth and space sciences.

The Government of Nunavut is hosting a leadership forum in August to build capacity among Nunavummiut women. The GN’s department of Family Services is hosting the four-day event with funding provided through the federal government’s Women and Gender Equality Canada department. The forum aims to empower Nunavut’s women and girls using traditional knowledge, skills, and their roles as natural leaders.

The annual Arctic Circle Assembly is the largest annual international gathering on the Arctic, attended by more than 2000 participants from 60 countries. It is attended by heads of states and governments, ministers, members of parliaments, officials, experts, scientists, entrepreneurs, business leaders, indigenous representatives, environmentalists, students, activists and others from the growing international community of partners and participants interested in the future of the Arctic. 

For the first time, a Regional Conference on Permafrost will be combined with the bi-annual 19th International Conference on Cold Regions Engineering. This conference is hosted by the US Permafrost Association, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the International Permafrost Association, the Permafrost Young Researchers Network, and the University of Colorado Boulder. A complete list of planned sessions is available here.

The Maritime Risk Symposium is an annual three-day conference in which government and maritime industry leaders, port representatives, researchers, and solution providers convene to examine current and emerging threats to maritime security. Government agencies, commercial entities, institutions of research, and higher education come together to discuss various threats, challenges, and risks to international and domestic maritime sectors.

The New England Arctic Network (NEAN) will host its 2021 meeting at the University of New England in Portland, Maine. Additional information will be published soon. 

Arctic Symposium 2021 continues momentum in Arctic defense and security collaboration established in prior ALCOM-hosted events. AAS21 seeks to address the challenges faced by the U.S. military and our allies and partners in understanding and responding to our respective national interests. AAS21 is planned and organized by the Arctic Domain Awareness Center at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) in support and in compliance to guidance from Alaskan Command (ALCOM) Staff and Commander. More information available soon.

The National Academies’ Polar Research Board is convening the following session at the Fall AGU meeting (Dec. 2021), and we welcome proposals for presentations in this session.  Abstract submission deadline is August 4, 2021.  Submissions to this session can be made at: AGU Fall Meeting 2021 (confex.com), and general submission instructions at: Abstracts | AGU Fall Meeting 2021.

Organizers announce, that due to the coronavirus outbreak, the 2nd Symposium on Polar Microbes and Viruses has been postponed to 2022. This symposium will bring together molecular microbial ecologists specializing in different organism groups to share our latest results and discuss methodological problems, as well as future prospects in the field, including practical international collaborations. The environmental focus will be on cryospheric environments including sea ice, glaciers, ice sheets, and permafrost, but excellent research in other polar environments is also invited. The methods to be discussed will focus on 'omics' techniques, ranging from single cells to metagenomes, but research using additional methods is encouraged as well.